For dinner, my aunt drove us to dine at Trattoria Dai Tosi. She tells me that the restaurant is a local favourite and happens to be set in an old hospital building that was around during the second world war. A booking had been made in advance as the place gets packed out.
There are no written menus at Trattoria Dai Tosi, and instead the waiter comes over and tells us what is available that day. There is no English spoken so of course we leave it up to my aunt to order for us. She did ask if we wanted a mix of pasta and tagliata, and I was happy with that.
A carafe of red wine and bottled water is brought out to us. Then not longer after, our first course arrives.
The spaghetti carbonara is considered a very plain dish but boy does it taste good. My aunt tells me carbonara is only made with egg. There is not meant to be any cream added so the entire dish is actually really light. There’s no such thing as that sick feeling after having too much creamy pasta. This one is light but with some saltiness from the pancetta, and the perfect amount of seasoning. Of course I tried to replicate this when I returned home, but it was too ‘eggy’. I have no idea how they make it taste so good! Probably a lot more butter.
We also tried a light creamy maccheroni dish with mushrooms, speck and zucchini. Although this dish did have some cream, it’s still super light just covering every piece of pasta. We polished both dishes off very quickly.
The main is one of Dai Tosi’s specialties, sliced beef (tagliata) with grilled polenta on the side. The beef is tender and served medium rare with no other sauce over the top. Although there was absolutely nothing wrong with the beef, I must say we are spoiled with our Aussie beef as I’ve definitely had better and more flavoursome beef.
My aunt also ordered some grilled zucchini and eggplant, and a whole bowl of chard on the side. Except these ‘side dishes’ were massive and very generous portions.
We didn’t have room for dessert but couldn’t help but order a housemade raspberry cheesecake. This is probably one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever tasted. I loved that it wasn’t too sweet, the slightly thicker crumbed base, super light cheese, and the thick but not too sweet layering of raspberry on top. The side of whipped cream wasn’t actually needed. Even though there was no room left in our stomachs, there wasn’t a crumb of this left on the plate.
Trattoria Dai Tosi’s specialties are fresh pasta and tagliata (sliced steak). It’s simple but honest home cooking at its best. As there was no written menu, we had no idea what the bill would come to. But I believe prices were inexpensive.
Via Appia Monterosso
130, 35031 Abano Terme PD, Italy
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